Scott Botanical
Human male, born LY 867, in Monab, to Collin and Francine. Husband of Hanna. Commodore in the Navy. Scott comes from a wealthy clan, which has long included many travelers and explorers. It also includes a great many botanists (many of whom are also explorers, whose main motivation is to discover new species of plants). Over the generations, they have founded botanical gardens in many of The Land's villages, and even in villages that already had such gardens, they have quickly risen to prominent positions in such institutions. For example, Scott's aunt Saffron is the current president of the World Science Council, a position she attained after years as curator of the Council's botanical garden (the largest in the world). The clan does have business ventures outside of botany, however. For example, Scott has an uncle, Rufus, who is captain of a frigate called the Sp'yetflower (named after one of the blooms of the dodecahydrangea, which exists only in Monab). This ship is used to transport paying customers between various coastal villages, but it is best known for its annual engagement, setting off from Port in early Sp'yet to ferry spirit-talkers from that village to Ship, from whence they travel over land to Monab for the annual Pilgrimage, which lasts throughout the month of Su'gin. (Rufus, in fact, was among the settlers of Port in 884.) Scott himself spent much of his youth traveling between villages, either alone or with his family, visiting many of his far-flung relatives. While he is close to many members of his clan, he's always had a special connection with his uncle Rufus, as Scott took a particular liking to the idea of sailing. At the age of 18, not long after Port had been founded, Scott visited Rufus there, and took a job on the Sp'yetflower. Ten years later, in 895, he purchased his own ship, a galleon called the Marshlily, and became its captain. In addition to transporting passengers, Scott's ship also was hired by traders to transport various cargoes. It should be noted that it was around this time that a rise in piracy began (mostly in the routes between First Land, Port, and Ristar). This culminated in the second great era of pirates, between 900 and the present. Scott's history of fighting off the attacks of pirates upon his ship turned out to be good preparation for a career in the Navy, which he joined in 901 when it was first being organized as part of The Plan. Of course, the navy needed not just sailors, but also ships, and many commercial vessels such as the Marshlily became a part of the navy (which, after the war, would buy most surviving ships, though a few, like Scott's ship, were retained by their original owners, even if those ships were still considered a part of the Navy's fleets). After the war, Scott was promoted to commodore, which largely put an end to his sailing, as the job required him to remain in Port, as the base commander of the village's fleet (which also served as headquarters of the Navy). At that point, Scott's first mate was given command of the Marshlily, which remained in active service. Among Scott's duties as commodore was occasionally coordinating various functions between the Navy and the Marine Corps. As such, he worked closely with a mermaid named Hanna Ericson, who was Brigadier of the First Sea regiment. Over time, they became friends, and eventually fell in love, marrying in 908 (at which time Hanna changed her surname to Botanical, which Scott's clan had chosen in 904). In fact, they are thus far the only known example of a marriage between a human and merperson. Over the years (dating back to his time on his uncle's ship), Scott had gotten quite good at mixing his own huo yao. Sometime prior to the Chaos War (in which Scott saw no actual combat, having a land-based job; though the Marshlily did take part in the Battle of Port Sea), he had begun experimenting with new mixes of huo yao, in an attempt to find uses for it other than as a weapon. By the end of the war, he had developed the Land's first fireworks, which he used to celebrate the inauguration of Quinn Darkstrider. In the years since then, he has taught others to make fireworks, which have become quite a popular form of entertainment at various other events and celebrations, with Scott himself overseeing the largest ever fireworks display at the 916 World Fair in Kurok. See also *Botanical clan *List of ships Category:People